Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore

Why it matters

Monte Oliveto Maggiore, founded in the fourteenth century in the Crete Senesi, is the mother abbey of the Olivetan Benedictine congregation. Its Great Cloister preserves a cycle of thirty-five frescoes depicting the life of Saint Benedict, begun by Luca Signorelli and completed by Antonio Bazzi, known as il Sodoma.

What to notice

The fresco cycle follows Gregory the Great's account of Benedict's life. Signorelli's figures are sculptural and severe; Sodoma's scenes are more animated and include details of courtly and monastic life. The carved wooden choir is the work of Olivetan monk Fra Giovanni da Verona. A reading lectern dated 1520 is attributed to Brother Raffaele da Brescia.

Context and history

The community began in 1313, when Giovanni de' Tolomei, later Bernardo, withdrew with Patrizio Patrizi and Ambrogio Piccolomini to the Tolomei family property at Accona. Recognition followed in 1319, and the community developed into the Olivetan congregation. The abbey church took its present form in the early fifteenth century. The Great Cloister frescoes were commissioned at the end of the fifteenth century and completed in the sixteenth.